Sorting machine



March 14, 1939. L. H FRONEFIELD SORTING MACHINE Filed April'24, 1937 (\i IVNTORI 9 j LL.

' Ai'TORNEY Patented Mar. 14, 1939 4 SOB-TING MACHINE Louis H. Fronefield, Binghamton, N. Y., assignor to International Business Machines Corporationlz New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Yor Application April 24, 1937, Serial No. 138,705

2| is engaged by feed rollers 29 driven by spiral gearing to shaft 28 and by said rollers is fed to the left to pass the usual sensing brush 30 which coacts with the usual metallic contact roll 3| to sense data designating holes in the records.

As the record card passes beneath the sensing brush 33 it also passes over a toothed bar 32 and beneath the upturned ends of the guide blades 33 leading to the usual receiving pockets (not shown) of which thirteen may be provided, twelve to correspond with the usual twelve index point positions in the columns of the cards, and one for records having no hole in the particular column sensed by the brush 3!). The latter pocket is commonly termed the reject pocket. Suitable feed rollers like 35 driven by the shaft 28 through suitable spiral gears, serve to convey the cards to the various pockets selected by operation of magnet 34, such records being guided to the 4 Claims.

This invention relates to record controlled sorting machines and more particularly to sorting machines adapted to be controlled by the perforated records used in well known systems of compiling statistical reports, like the Hollerith system, for example.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved selecting device for selecting the sorting pockets to which the records are to be conveyed.

A further object is to provide an improved guiding and supporting device for the records.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be obvious from the following particular description of one form of mechanism embodying the invention or from an inspection of the accompanying drawing; and the invention also constitutes certain new and useful features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed. appropriate pockets by the guide blades 33.

In the drawing: The feature of the present invention resides Fig. l is a vertical longitudinal section of a in the construction and operation of bar 32 which portion of a sorting machine in which the inis mounted for horizontal reciprocation on cross vention may be embodied. members 36 and side plates 31 (Fig. 3). The Fig. 2 is a View showing the parts in pocket underside of bar 32 is slotted to receive the rounded end of a lever 38 whose opposite rounded end pivots in a slot in plate 39. The upper end of lever 38 is normally urged toward the left by a spring 40 and is restrained against such movement by the end of armature 41 of magnet 34 which engages a block 42 on the lever. Energization of magnet 34 will release block 42 so that spring 40 may rock lever 38 counterclockwise and slidebar 32 to the left until a shoulder 43 engages the left hand plate 36 as shown in Fig. 2.

Bar 32 has a plurality of upwardly extending teeth 44, one for each blade 33, so located that when the bar is latched in its right hand position, the ends of the blades 33 rest upon the tops of the corresponding teeth 44, the points of contacts being along the line of travel of the record card.

The ends of the blades 33 are so disposed relative to the brush 30 that when, for example, a 4 hole in the record card is sensed, the leading edge of the record card in which such hole appears will occupy a position about half-way between the end of the blade 33 leading to the 4 pocket and the end of the blade leading to the 3 pocket. At this time, energization of magnet 34 as a consequence of the hole sensed by brush 30 will cause the card having the 4 hole to be guided to the 4 pocket, since all blades to the right of the 3 blade will be held up by the record while the 3 blade and all other blades to selecting position.

Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 33 of Fig. 1.

The invention is shown as applied to a sorting machine of the electrically controlled type known as the International electric sorting machine. Such electric sorting machine is now well known in the art and its various details of construction and manner of operation are disclosed in a number of patents of which Nos. 1,741,985 and 1,741,992 show most of the general details of the machine as it is known to commerce. Since the aforesaid patents are very detailed, it will be unnecessary to give more than a very brief description of the general features herein except to point out wherein the improvements of the present invention are applied.

A batch of record cards which may consist of the usual Hollerith cards 20 (Fig. 1) is placed in the usual magazine and removed one at a time from the bottom of the magazine by a picker 2| on a slide 22 actuated by arms like 23, the latter being fixed to a shaft 24 journalled in the framework. A link 25 pivoted to one of the arms 23 is also pivoted to a crank pin 26 carried by a crank 2'1 on a shaft I9 which is driven at the rate of one revolution per card cycle through the usual spiral gearing (not shown) connecting shaft 19 and the main drive shaft 28. The latter is shown in broken lines in Fig. 1. Each record card advanced from the magazine by the picker the left will be allowed to drop causing a gap between the 3 and 4 blades into which gap the card having the 4 hole will pass' and will be conveyed by rollers 35 to the 4 pocket.

After the card has completely passed the brush 3! a cam 45 on shaft l9 will engage a hooked member 46 which is pivoted at 31 to an arm 48 free on shaft 24 to urge the member and an extension 49 thereon to the right whereby the head of extension 49 will restore lever 38 to its latched position and incidentally shift bar 32 to the right so that the teeth 64 cam their'respective blades 33 upward to normal position.

The function of teeth .4 is to provide suitable support for the record between the ends of adjoining blades 33 and overcome the tendency of the blades to force the record material down into the space between plates 3'! when the blades are freed to move down of their own resiliency. This is especially true where the records are made of paper stock which does not have the rigidity of the heavier weight card stock. Thus the area upon which any blade end acts is the portion of the record between the back edge of one tooth and the front edge of the next tooth and the width of the space between plates 3?.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A sorting machine having a plurality of sorting blades with their ends disposedprogressively along the path of travel of a record to be sorted, and means for feeding a record to pass said ends, in combination with a bar provided with a plurality of spaced teeth, each tooth normally underlying a corresponding blade end to support the same, said blade ends being biased to press against said teeth and means for shift-- ing said bar to bring the spaces between the teeth beneath the blade ends whereby said biased blade ends will move downwardly into the spaces between said teeth.

2. A sorting machine having a plurality of sorting blades with their ends disposed progressively along the path of travel of a record to be sorted, and means for feeding a record to pass said ends, in combination with a bar provided with a plurality of spaced teeth, each normally underlying a corresponding blade end to support the same said blade ends being biased to press against said teeth, means for shifting said bar whereupon the biased blade ends will move downwardly into the spaces between said teeth and means for restoring said bar to cause the teeth to cam the blade ends back to their normal position.

3. A sorting machine having a plurality of sorting blades with their ends disposed progressively along the path of travel of a record to be sorted, and means for feeding a record to pass said ends, in combination with a bar provided with a plurality of spaced teeth, each normally underlying a corresponding blade end to support the same, said blade ends being yieldingly biased to press against said teeth and means for shifting said bar in the direction of travel of said record whereupon the biased blade ends will move downwardly into the spaces between said teeth.

4. A sorting machine having a plurality of sorting blades with their ends disposed progressively along the path of travel of a record to be sorted, and means for feeding a record to pass said ends, in combination with a bar provided with a plurality of spaced teeth, each normally underlying a corresponding blade end to support the same said blade ends being yieldingly biased to press against said teeth, a lever engaging said bar, a latch to hold the lever in position, a magnet to disengage the latch from said lever and a spring operative upon said disengagement to shift said lever and bar whereupon the biased blade ends will move downwardly into the spaces between said teeth.

LOUIS H. FRONEFIELD. 

